Rising death toll undermines the White House’s rosy picture of Afghanistan

Two soldiers from the 5,500-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in Kabul in separate attacks this week. On Tuesday, a Canadian soldier, Corporal Jamie Murphy, died and three others were injured when a suicide bomber jumped in front of their vehicle. The following day a British soldier, Private Jonathan Kitulagoda, was killed and four others wounded, two seriously, when a suicide bomber in a taxi drew alongside their jeep and detonated explosives. About 10 civilians, including a French aid worker, were also wounded in the attacks.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for both blasts and declared that it was “just the beginning.” “More such attacks will take place. Hundreds of our men are ready to carry out such attacks,” he said. Such attacks while relatively frequent in Iraq have been rare in Afghanistan. One of the few instances occurred six months ago, when four German ISAF soldiers were killed near the spot where the British troops died.

On Thursday, seven US soldiers died when an ammunition dump exploded in the southern town of Ghazni. Another soldier is missing and three more were wounded. The cause of the explosion remains unclear. According to initial reports, the troops were trying to move the weapons when the cache detonated. The US military has instigated an inquiry to determine whether the dump had been booby-trapped or not.

The death toll for US troops involved in the occupation of Afghanistan, which reached 100 earlier in the month, is now 107. Only 16 soldiers were killed in the initial ousting of the Taliban regime in late 2001—10 of those died in a helicopter crash in the Philippines, which was considered part of the Pentagon’s Operation Enduring Freedom. Separate from the ISAF, the US military provides 9,000 of the 11,000 troops that are under its command and operate throughout Afghanistan suppressing opposition.

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jan2004/afgh-j31.shtml